• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.980-984
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• 2010

Exploring microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA regulatory interactions may give new insights into diverse biological phenomena. Recently, miRNAs have been discovered as important regulators that play a major role in various cellular processes. Therefore, it is essential to identify functional interactions between miRNAs and mRNAs for understanding the context- dependent activities of miRNAs in complex biological systems. While elucidating complex miRNA-mRNA interactions has been studied with experimental and computational approaches, it is still difficult to infer miRNA-mRNA regulatory modules. Here we present a novel method, termed layered hypernetworks (LHNs), for identifying functional miRNA-mRNA interactions from heterogeneous expression data. In experiments, we apply the LHN model to miRNA and mRNA expression profiles on multiple cancers. The proposed method identifies cancer-specific miRNA-mRNA interactions. We show the biological significance of the discovered miRNA- mRNA interactions.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.110-116
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• 1996

In this paper a novel method improving the accuracy of DTMF tone reception in ARS system is proposed. ARS system should allow users to generate DTMF signals while it is sending voice guidance. It is not unocmmon, in this case, that a portion of transmitting voice signals cross-talks to the receiving channel and it often results in interfering with the receiving DTMF signals. Serious degradations including DTMF tone missing, false alarm and so forth have been introduced for the above reason. To overcome this phenomena, we have proposed a way eliminating the frequency spectra representing DTMF signals bands from the transmitting voice signal by using notch filters. This method also employs bandpass filters of which the frequency responses are reciprocal to those of the notch filters incorporated with the DTMF receiver. It is shown that a drastic improvement has been achieved with respect to the DTMF tone detection with little deterioration of voice guidance quality.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1457-1466
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• 2012

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) exert antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, and viruses by various mechanisms. AMPs commonly possess particular characteristics by harboring cationic and amphipathic structures and binding to cell membranes, resulting in the leakage of essential cell contents by forming pores or disturbing lipid organization. These membrane disruptive mechanisms of AMPs are possible to explain according to the various structure forming pores in the membrane. Some AMPs inhibit DNA and/or RNA synthesis as well as apoptosis induction by reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Specifically, mitochondria play a major role in the apoptotic pathway. During apoptosis induced by AMPs, cells undergo cytochrome c release, caspase activation, phosphatidylserine externalization, plasma or mitochondrial membrane depolarization, DNA and nuclei damage, cell shrinkage, apoptotic body formation, and membrane blebbing. Even AMPs, which have been reported to exert membrane-active mechanisms, induce apoptosis in yeast. These phenomena were also discovered in tumor cells treated with AMPs. The apoptosis mechanism of AMPs is available for various therapeutics such as antibiotics for antibiotic-resistant pathogens that resist to the membrane active mechanism, and antitumor agents with selectivity to tumor cells.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.316-330
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• 2008

This paper proposes a novel method for transporting various types of user traffic effectively over the next generation network called integrated services digital network 3 (ISDN3) (or quantum network) using quantum packets. Basically, a quantum packet comprises one or more 53-byte quanta as generated by a "quantumization" process. While connection-oriented traffic is supported by fixed-size quantum packets each with one quantum to emulate circuit switching, connectionless traffic (e.g., IP packets and active packets) is carried by variable-size quantum packets with multiple quanta to support store-and-forward switching/routing. Our aim is to provide frame-like or datagram-like services while enabling cell-based multiplexing. The quantum packet method also establishes a flexible and extensible framework that caters for future packetization needs while maintaining backward compatibility with ATM. In this paper, we discuss the design of the quantum packet method, including its format, the "quantumization" process, and support for different types of user traffic. We also present an analytical model to evaluate the consumption of network resources (or network costs) when quantum packets are employed to transfer loss-sensitive data using three different approaches: cut-through, store-and-forward and ideal. Close form mathematical expressions are obtained for some situations. In particular, in terms of network cost, we discover two interesting equivalence phenomena for the cut-through and store-and-forward approaches under certain conditions and assumptions. Furthermore, analytical and simulation results are presented to study the system behavior. Our analysis provides valuable insights into the. design of the ISDN3/quantum network.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.693-715
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• 2014

Stochastic processes are used to represent phenomena in many diverse fields. Numerical simulation method is widely applied for the solution to stochastic problems of complex structures when alternative analytical methods are not applicable. In some practical applications the stochastic processes show non-Gaussian properties. When the stochastic processes deviate significantly from Gaussian, techniques for their accurate simulation must be available. The various existing simulation methods of non-Gaussian stochastic processes generally can only simulate super-Gaussian stochastic processes with the high-peak characteristics. And these methodologies are usually complicated and time consuming, not sufficiently intuitive. By revealing the inherent coupling effect of the phase and amplitude part of discrete Fourier representation of random time series on the non-Gaussian features (such as skewness and kurtosis) through theoretical analysis and simulation experiments, this paper presents a novel approach for the simulation of non-Gaussian stochastic processes with the prescribed amplitude probability density function (PDF) and power spectral density (PSD) by amplitude modulation and phase reconstruction. As compared to previous spectral representation method using phase modulation to obtain a non-Gaussian amplitude distribution, this non-Gaussian phase reconstruction strategy is more straightforward and efficient, capable of simulating both super-Gaussian and sub-Gaussian stochastic processes. Another attractive feature of the method is that the whole process can be implemented efficiently using the Fast Fourier Transform. Cases studies demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.651-666
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• 2013

This study introduces a novel approach to the differentiation of two phenomena, Asian Dust and haze, which are extremely difficult to distinguish based solely on comparisons of PM10 concentration, through use of the Optical Particle Counter (OPC), which simultaneously generates PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentration. In the case of Asian Dust, PM10 concentration rose to the exclusion of PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentration. The relative ratios of PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentration versus PM10 concentration were below 40%, which is consistent with the conclusion that Asian Dust, as a prime example of the coarse-particle phenomenon, only impacts PM10 concentration, not PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentration. In contrast, PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentration simultaneously increased with haze. The relative ratios of PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentration versus PM10 concentration were generally above 70%. In this case, PM1.0 concentration varies because a haze event consists of secondary aerosol in the fine-mode, and the relative ratios of PM10 and PM2.5 concentration remain intact as these values already subsume PM1.0 concentration. The sequential shift of the peaks in PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentrations also serve to individually track the transport of coarse-mode versus fine-mode aerosols. The distinction in the relative ratios of PM2.5 and PM1.0 concentration versus PM10 concentration in an Asian Dust versus a haze event, when collected on a national or global scale using OPC monitoring networks, provides realistic information on outbreaks and transport of Asian Dust and haze.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.527-531
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• 2012

In this paper, a novel DPSO-QI (Distributed PSO with quantum-infusion mechanism) algorithm improving one of the fatal defect, the so-called premature convergence, that degrades the performance of the conventional PSO algorithms is proposed. The proposed scheme has the following two distinguished features. First, a concept of neighborhood of each particle is introduced, which divides the whole swarm into several small groups with an appropriate size. Such a strategy restricts the information exchange between particles to be done only in each small group. It thus results in the improvement of particles' diversity and further minimization of a probability of occurring the premature convergence phenomena. Second, a quantum-infusion (QI) mechanism based on the quantum mechanics is introduced to generate a meaningful offspring in each small group. This offspring in our PSO mechanism improves the ability to explore a wider area precisely compared to the conventional one, so that the degree of precision of the algorithm is improved. Finally, some numerical results are compared with those of the conventional researches, which clearly demonstrates the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed DPSO-QI algorithm.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1253-1259
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• 2012

The 14-3-3 proteins are highly conserved, ubiquitous molecules involved in a variety of biologic phenomena, such as cell cycle control, and apoptosis. However, their expression in cholangiocarcinoma has not been previously characterized. In this paper, immunohistochemistry using specific anti-14-3-3 monoclonal antibodies was performed on formalin-fixed;, paraffin embedded archival tissue from 86 patients of cholangiocarcinoma. We also examined the correlation between expression and survival rate and clinicopathologic factors such as tumor location, tumor size, pathologic differentiation, lymphatic permeation, lymph node metastasis, and tumor stage. Positive 14-3-3 proteins expression was observed for 6 isoforms (${\beta}$, ${\sigma}$, ${\gamma}$, ${\theta}$, ${\delta}$, ${\eta}$) of these proteins in 86 patients of cholangiocarcinoma. ${\beta}$ and ${\sigma}$ isoform immunoreactivity was correlated with lymph node metastasis, tumor stage and patients' survival rate. In addition, ${\delta}$ isoform immunoreactivity showed trends with tumor location, tumor size, pathologic differentiation and tumor stage, while the ${\theta}$ isoform was correlated with pathologic differentiation. These results indicated that upregulated expression of some isoforms of 14-3-3 may be a common mechanism for evading apoptosis in cholangiocarcinoma, so that targeting 14-3-3 may be a novel promising strategy for the treatment of this tumor.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.3495-3501
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• 2014

A novel crystal, the mono-protonated metformin acetate (1), was obtained and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. It was found that one of the imino group in the metformin cation was protonated along with the proton transfer from the secondary amino group to the other imino group. Its crystal structure was then compared with the previously reported diprotonated metformin oxalate (2). The difference between them is that the mono-protonated metformin cations can be linked by hydrogen bonding to form dimers while the diprotonated metformin cations cannot. Both of them are stabilized by intermolecular hydrogen bonds to assemble a 3-D supermolecular structure. The four potential tautomer of the mono-protonated metformin cation (tautomers 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d) were optimized and their single point energies were calculated by Density Functional Theory (DFT) B3LYP method based on the Polarized Continuum Model (PCM) in water, which shows that the most likely existed tautomer in human cells is the same in the crystal structure. Based on the optimized structure, their Wiberg bond orders, Natural Population Analysis (NPA) atomic charges, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) maps were calculated to analyze their electronic structures, which were then compared with the corresponding values of the diprotonated metformin cation (cation 2) and the neutral metformin (compound 3). Finally, the possible tautomeric mechanism of the mono-protonated metformin cation was discussed based on the observed phenomena.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.55-59
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• 2018

This paper proposes a new type of electro-mechanical wedge brake for commercial vehicles. The brake operates on a novel mechanism for self-boosting braking friction forces using eccentric shafts, and involves wedges that are inserted between the rampbridge and traverse; this self-boosting mechanism is explained herein. A dynamic analysis using ADAMS was conducted, and the findings are reported. The constraint and contact conditions are explained to verify the precision of the dynamic analysis. The dynamic analysis shows that in the proposed mechanism, the self-boosting effect occurs as desired. However, it is also noted that the system has a limitation in terms of the production of unlimited braking forces that can jam the roller inside the wedges. After demonstrating the self-boosting effect, dynamic analyses are performed for several values of the wedge angles and friction coefficients between the brake pads and disks. Conventionally, a lower wedge angle has been suggested owing to its provision of a larger clamping force for given friction coefficients. However, it is noted that lower wedge angles can lead to a higher probability of occurrence of undesirable high braking forces, which can jam the roller into the wedge; thus, a larger wedge angle is preferable for avoiding the undesirable jamming phenomena. These analysis results are presented and discussed herein.